A former
Federal Commissioner for Information and convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum,
Chief Edwin Clark, speaks on the military operations in Niger Delta
, and the
Water Resources Bill among other issues with THEOPHILUS ONOJEGHEN of Punch
You are a
major player in the coalition of Middle Belt/Southern groups, currently moving
against President Muhammadu Buhari. What do you have against his government?
Our forum,
which comprises major regional groups from the Middle Belt and southern part of
the country, particularly the Afenifere, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, the
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Middle Belt Forum, have been meeting regularly. We
believe in the restructuring of this country. That is the only solution to the
problems of this nation. I will not be holding this conference if this country
is restructured. I will take care of my resources and they will not be
channelled to other places. If I am controlling my resources and managing them
well, I will develop my region and take care of my people’s welfare. My obligation
to the Federal Government will just be payment of my tax. Some non-oil
producing states have up to 44 local government councils, collecting huge sums
from the federation account whereas Bayelsa State collects a meagre amount with
just 16 local government areas. We believe in the restructuring of this
country. Anybody who is committed to our welfare must key into this. Party
manifestos must have restructuring as their number one agenda. We will vote for
the candidate of any party that will comply with our demands. Restructuring, no
doubt, is the only cure for the problems of Nigeria.
You alleged
that South-South youths, particularly beneficiaries of the amnesty programme,
were shut out the recent jobs recruitment into the NNPC. How did you discover
this?
The board of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which is made of nine persons, has
six from the North, one from the South-South and two from the South-West. The
South-East has no representatives. The chairman of the NNPC board said
contracts were awarded without the knowledge of the Minister of State for
Petroleum. Other appointments were made without his knowledge. Finding out
more, the minister is floating till today because the President is the minister
of petroleum and the GMD of NNPC works directly with the President. So the
minister of state hardly finds jobs to do. Even though he is the chairman of
the NNPC board, he is a total stranger there. If contracts can be awarded
without his knowledge and Mr. President approves them, what is the duty of the
minister of state?
The NNPC is
the engine house of the oil industry and if the minister of petroleum or
minister of state for petroleum resources is the chairman, but his job has been
taken over by the GMD, what is his relevance there? He’s been floating. He’s
moving around pretending that he is very busy. I have also mentioned to you
that our students, who went abroad or studied in other Nigerian universities,
have graduated and returned without jobs to do. Nobody cared for them. Some of
them have First Class grades and some, Second Class Upper. Today, if you go to
the Warri Refinery, the Department of Petroleum Resources and other places,
it’s as if you are in Kaduna State. You can easily determine the state of
origin of the workers there by the dress they wear and the language they speak.
So what type of country do we belong to? I am appealing to Mr. President that
something has to be done immediately.
We should
not be blackmailed, we should not be called all sorts of names like trouble
makers. We are agitators, and our patience is running out. We are not grateful
for what the government is doing for us. What is the government even doing for
us in the first instance?
The Vice
President, in his capacity as the Acting President who went to Bayelsa State
during our tour of the area, said the modular refineries would replace the
illegal refineries being operated by our youths and people. The vice president
has been reminded of this but the minister of state goes about telling people
that if you don’t have money, you cannot establish modular refineries. And that
10 of such facilities would soon be established with two, almost taking off.
They award
scholarships from money derived from NNPC but the slots have been taken over by
the northerners. Our children are no longer getting scholarships from Escravos
Gas-to-Liquids Project.
Our children
are well educated in relevant fields. We were disturbed over happenings in our
area last year and about 100 leaders from the region, including first-class
traditional rulers, former ministers, professors, former senators, politicians,
youths and women leaders went to the Villa with a well-thought-out agenda that
could sufficiently address our problems in the Niger Delta. Up till today, we
are being treated as if nothing has happened. Nobody is talking to us. We have
not seen the GMD to even brief us what government is doing on our case. They
have not called us for dialogue. Sometimes the minister of Niger Delta will
call us, but no meaningful action would follow such meeting. I have even asked
our people not to attend meetings with him again. The Acting President at that
time, (Yemi Osinbajo), went to Akwa Ibom and said the oil companies would be
asked to move their headquarters to their operating bases in the Niger Delta.
Clear directive from government! Nobody is talking about it again. Since Mr.
President returned from London, the matter died. Chevron, for example, has its
headquarters and everything in Lagos. There will be no Lekki, no Victoria
Garden City and all that places in Lagos State without Chevron. Chevron has an
estate in Gbagada; Chevron workers pay their taxes to the Lagos State
Government instead of paying them to Niger Delta states.
If today oil
exploration is stopped in the Niger Delta, there will be no evidence of its
existence in the Niger Delta because there are no buildings. I am now 91 years
old. I can no longer keep quiet and allow my people to continue to suffer. As
it is said, we are not second class citizens in this country. We cannot be beggars
in our country when we produce the resources.
Talking
about roads, East-West Road started 10 years ago. Today, it has not been
completed because of lack of funds. Yet, it is the most economic pliable road
in Nigeria. All the trucks conveying petroleum products pass through the
East-West Road. Could you imagine a situation whereby the proposed railway from
Calabar to Lagos has to wait because there is no fund? Yet, the Niger Delta
provides the funds to put other railways in place. Is it fair?
With what is
happening, if you were to give advice as a father, would you advise the
Minister of State for Petroleum to resign?
Why should
he resign? He’s a citizen of this country. He should stand behind and fight for
his right. He is well educated. This man was number two man in Mobil. He could
have become the managing director of Mobil. You employed him as GMD, he
performed very well. He didn’t ask for it, you promoted him to be minister of
state, and he was looking after the two jobs. Then, you later appointed a GMD
to take over from him and made him the chairman of NNPC’s board. One would have
expected that the position of being chairman would give him an opportunity to
perform all his duties as chairman. There is no reason why the present minister
of state should not be given the full appointment of minister of petroleum.
Today, Chevron has become a Yoruba company. I was not surprised the other day
when the leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said there
was no reason for Chevron to move its headquarter from Lagos to Warri. You can
see the interest he was protecting. But we have our men there, in the House, in
the Senate. What are they doing? They should make statements. Nobody is going
to drive us from this country and nobody can exist in this country, functioning
without us. We need them and they need us.
How is your
relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo now?
There are no
permanent friends and enemies in politics. Obasanjo is very forthright; he is
not afraid of anybody. He speaks his mind on issues. My disagreement with him
is that he alleged that some people are corrupt and I know that he is also
corrupt. He was one of those who made President Muhammadu Buhari to win in the
last election by condemning the former President (Goodluck Jonathan), who he
also made President. He made him (Jonathan) governor because of his hatred for
Alamieyeseigha. He (Obasanjo) made Jonathan vice president and contributed to
his becoming President. So, I don’t know what went wrong. Jonathan became like
somebody that was carrying leprosy and because of that, Obasanjo started
abusing the Ijaw.
But I
mentioned to him, when (Shehu) Shagari was the President of Nigeria, the Hausa
language was the lingua franca of Aso Rock. When Obasanjo became President of
Nigeria, the Yoruba language became the lingua franca of Aso Rock. When (Umaru)
Yar’adua took over, Hausa language returned to the Villa. He brought all the
people from Katsina. But when Jonathan came in, the language of Aso Rock
remained Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. There was no Ijaw language nor Urhobo language
there because Jonathan’s people were not there. He could not employ his own
people. I can count three or five people, thereafter, none. The only Ijaw
adviser he had was Oronta Douglas, out of 18 advisers. The next one he had was
the domestic assistant. Isn’t it? All I am saying is that you should not try to
be president to fight for your people alone. When you are president, you are
president of the whole country. Employment will be based on the character of
this country. Obasanjo is still my friend. We have always been very friendly.
Recently, somebody said we will meet. I am ready to meet with him at any time.
He is not my enemy. When he says things that are true, I praise him. When he
says things that are bad, I condemn him. That is politics!
The military
operation is still ongoing in the Niger Delta despite your people’s demand that
the soldiers should be withdrawn from the oil rich region. What is your next
line of action now?
The soldiers
never wanted to leave our area because they are benefiting from oil bunkering
and other illegal activities they are doing there. Over the years, the JTF was
not able to drive our boys from the creeks until we talked to them. They own
the area; it is their terrain.
Even when
the military brought the Crocodile Smile to Sapele and to other places, they
ended up in tears. They went back. Whenever they are ready let them go whether
they can stop the boys. It is just that our boys do not want to deliberately
destroy the economy of their country. So they listened to their elders. This
same government thinks it could talk to the boys by ignoring us but they
failed. You ignore us to your detriment.
The soldiers
are just boasting. If they want to make more money, let them go back to the
creeks. They would add more to the trouble already existing there. They were
not responsible for the peace there. We did and they know. Have they been able
to stop the killings going on in Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Zamfara, Nasarawa,
Kaduna, Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states? They know the terrain in our place is
very difficult for them to succeed here. They should not claim what they do not
control.
What is the
position of PANDEF regarding the Water Resources Bill?
We have
already responded to it. We are opposed to it. There is no reason for that bill
to be brought by the executive to the National Assembly. This issue has been
thrashed out a long time ago both in the Supreme Court and through government
policies. The Land Use Act has taken care of all these things.
Punch
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